Open Source Hyperledger Blockchain Project Gets a Director
The Linux Foundation has named Brian Behlendorf executive director of the Hyperledger Project, a blockchain initiative to create an open distributed ledger platform for the foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to professional, open source management.
Behlendorf was a primary developer of the Apache Web server. He is also a founding member of the Apache Software Foundation. He served on the Mozilla Foundation board since 2003 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2013.
He was the founding chief technology officer of both CollabNet and the World Economic Forum. Most recently, Behlendorf served as managing director at Mithril Capital Management LLC, a global technology investment firm.
High Expectations For Behlendorf
Jim Zemlin, The Linux Foundation’s executive director, stated:
Brian’s contributions to open source software changed the web. Now he will do the same thing for this decade’s most promising technology – the blockchain.
“Brian’s open source roots and proven technology acumen will enable the Hyperledger Project to grow a community that transcends any individual industry and becomes the world’s standard for shared ledgers,” Zemlin added.
The Hyperledger Project launched in December of 2015 to establish common distributed ledger technology that is transparent, shared, and decentralized, making it ideal for finance and areas like banking, manufacturing, insurance and the Internet of Things. In establishing a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers, any digital exchange with value can cost-effectively and securely be traded and tracked.
“Distributed ledgers are essential to the next generation of the Internet technology stack,” Behlendorf said. “The Hyperledger Project is all about bringing together developers to build common distributed ledger technology, a rising tide that will lift all boats. Open source projects are great for this kind of work, but it takes a real community to fulfill that promise, and it will require collaborating with our friends in the blockchain technology community. We’re ready to do all that right now.”
Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, said Behlendorf is a veteran of free and open software projects. Ito has known Behlendorf for more than 20 years and noted he has never betrayed the trust of the communities he serves.
Open Source Visionaries Join Linux
Behlendorf is the latest of several open source visionaries to join The Linux Foundation in the last year. Others include: Sam Ramji, CEO of Cloud Foundry Foundation and formerly the leader of Microsoft’s open source and Linux strategy; Chris Aniszczyk, manager of the TODO Group, Open Container Initiative and Cloud Native Computing Foundation and formerly of Twitter; and Nicko van Sommeren, who heads up the Core Infrastructure Initiative and is formerly of Good Technology. Linus Torvalds, Linux creator, and Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux maintainer, are fellows at The Linux Foundation.
Several companies have started contributing code to the project, including Blockstream, Ripple, Digital Asset and IBM.
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